Continuing yesterday's commentary thread, I wrote and (more relevantly) drew this "Power Stripped" story a month or two after wrapping up work on Empowered vol. 7's ninja-riffic finale, in a wan attempt to work up some interest in drawing the next volume. See, by the climactic act of a narratively propulsive creative experience like the ending of nearly every Emp volume since vol. 2, I'm easily plowing through pages at breakneck production speeds; but once the book's completed, that pumped-up workflow soon dissipates while I tackle all the many other tasks that have piled up during the process, whether said tasks are creative or mundane.

Almost invariably, when I try to start work on the next Empowered volume weeks or (ouch) months later, I find that I have no great interest in drawing new comic pages. (Writing 'em would be a different story, pun unintended.) So, more often than not, I try to kick things off with a relatively undemanding "damsel in distress"-oriented episode like this one, given that some portion of the overall Empowered readership requires such content which might not otherwise fit into the overall narrative.

More on this matter in tomorrow's commentary!

-Adam Warren